learning; and their sons, sent to France at great sacrifice to themselves, had often more success at school than the children of the colonists.
The wealth and knowledge they acquired made the "affranchis" feel they were the equals of the whites. Therefore they were highly indignant over the prerogatives the latter had assumed at their expense. They claimed the exercise of the political rights granted them by the Black Code. Circumstances placed them face to face with the colonists, who sought to check their ambition by humiliating them. Thus the liberal professions were closed to the "affranchis"; they were debarred from learning any kind of trade; they could not be silversmiths, for instance. In the army they could no longer become officers. At last they were even forbidden to go to France (1777); and were ordered to wear clothes of a material different from the whites.
And yet those men upon whom the colonists heaped humiliation after humiliation were good soldiers. They were enlisted in both the militia and the horse-police (maréchausée); and they all understood the use of firearms. It was into the hands of such men that the colonists committed their safety. As a means of putting a stop to the ever-increasing colonial pride and haughtiness, the women, mulattresses and blacks alike, resorted to their native charms. Wives or concubines, they availed themselves of whatever influence they possessed to secure the freedom of the men of their race. Incensed by the preference shown to their colored sisters, the white women added the weight of their jealousy to the already existing causes of conflict.
The slaves were in a pitiable plight. Not being considered as human beings, they were entirely without rights that a white man was bound to respect. They were treated and sold like cattle, with which their masters confounded them in the inventory of their estates. They were subjected to the most barbarous punishments. According to the Black Code all fugitives were punishable by death; it was lawful to mutilate them by
